Updated JORC Mineral Resource

RNS Number : 3996K

Amur Minerals Corporation

30 July 2013

 

30 July 2013

AMUR MINERALS CORPORATION

(AIM: AMC)

JORC Resource Exceeds Half a Million Tonnes Nickel

Increase of nearly 50% to 100 million Tonnes Ore

Measured Resource Increased by more than 300%

Amur Minerals Corporation ("Amur" or the "Company"), the nickel copper exploration and development company focused on base metal projects located in the far east of Russia, is pleased to announce an updated JORC compliant mineral resource estimate prepared by SRK Consulting (UK) Ltd  ("SRK").  The updated resource is contained within four deposits and specifically excludes the Kubuk deposit which is being drilled for the first time during this field season.

Highlights:

·     The updated JORC mineral resource inventory, which excludes the fifth deposit which is currently being drilled at Kubuk, exceeds one half million tonnes of nickel, up some 55% from SRK's previous estimate in 2007 to 531,700 tonnes of contained nickel;

·     The resource update has resulted in a substantial increase in the resource due to the result of step out exploration drilling.  Based on nearly 29 kilometres of total drilling, the global mineral resource now totals 100.2 million tonnes with an average nickel grade of 0.53% and an average copper grade of 0.15%.  This equates to 531,700 tonnes of nickel and 145,500 tonnes of copper; 

·     Exploration since the 2007 JORC compliant estimate was compiled has resulted in a  47% increase in ore tonnage (32 million new tonnes), 56% more nickel (190,700 additional tonnes) and 52% more copper (an additional 50,000 tonnes).  The average contained grades have increased by 6% for nickel and 7% for copper.

·     Also present as by-product metals is 13.9 tonnes of platinum and 15.6 tonnes of palladium; 

·     In-fill drilling has also been completed within the Measured and Indicated Resource areas defined in the 2007 pre-feasibility study area.  The in-fill programme was designed to confirm reported grades, thicknesses and to upgrade previously reported Indicated Mineral Resources to the Measured Resource category.  In 2007, the JORC resource contained a combined total of 51.4 million tonnes of Measured and Indicated Mineral Resources with 3.7 million tonnes being classified as Measured.  The newly completed in-fill drilling has resulted in a substantial conversion of the 2007 Indicated Mineral Resources to Measured Resources.  The Measured Mineral Resource now consists of 15.8 million tonnes averaging 0.52% nickel and 0.13% copper.  This represents an increase of nearly 325% from that reported in 2007;

·     The configuration of the mineralisation contained within the newly updated resource estimate is highly conducive to the lower cost open cast mining method;

·     The newly issued JORC results do not include any consideration for resources that are presently being drilled at the fifth deposit identified as Kubuk.

Robin Young, CEO of Amur Minerals Corporation, commented:

"It is with pleasure that the Board is able to report to our shareholders that we are beginning to more fully reap the benefits of our exploration efforts through 2012 by announcing the substantial increase of our resource.  A 50% increase in the total resource since the 2007 JORC report takes the project over more than a half million tonnes of nickel.  This equates to 1.1 billion pounds of nickel and does not even include the fifth deposit which is being drilled at Kubuk.  We look forward to continued successes in the near term which will be reported to our steadfast shareholders."

Enquiries:

Company Amur Minerals Corp.	Nomad and Joint Broker S.P. Angel Corporate Finance LLP	Joint Broker Sanlam Securities UK Ltd	Public Relations Yellow Jersey
Robin Young CEO	Ewan Leggat Laura Littley	Lindsay Mair	Dominic Barretto Anna Legge
[phone]	[phone]	[phone]	[phone]

Notes to Editor

The information contained in this announcement has been reviewed and approved by the CEO of Amur, Robin Young. Mr. Young is a Geological Engineer (cum laude) and is a Qualified Professional Geologist, as defined by the Toronto and Vancouver Stock Exchanges.

Discussion on the Resource Update

The Kun-Manie exploration licence area is approximately 950 km² and is located 700 km northeast of the city of Blagoveshchensk located on the Chinese border. Amur commenced seasonal field work on the licence in 2004 and issued a JORC compliant statement covering the three deposits of Maly Kurumkon, Vodorazdelny and Ikenskoe in 2007. 

Since 2007, exploration and drilling has been conducted on an ongoing basis and an updated resource estimate has now been compiled wherein resources are reported from four deposits located along the prolific Kurumkon Trend. 

The four deposits contain a total Measured, Indicated and Inferred resource of 100.2 million tonnes averaging 0.53% nickel and 0.15% copper.  The total contained tonnage of nickel is estimated to be 531,700 tonnes with copper being 145,500 tonnes.  This equates to more than 1.1 billion pounds of nickel and 0.3 billion pounds of copper.  The fifth deposit identified as Kubuk is not included within this update as it is presently being drilled for the first time during this 2013 field season.  Preliminary results indicate this deposit could further increase the stated resource total and its potential will be examined at the end of this season's drill programme.

The estimation of the resource has been compiled by SRK Consulting (UK) Ltd ("SRK") using geostatistical methods and has been reported using the JORC Code.

Further, SRK has undertaken sufficient work, inclusive of a series of pit optimisation studies to determine that all of the reported resource has reasonable prospects for eventual economic extraction.  A detailed summary of the SRK resource estimate is presented at the end of this announcement.  The summary provides information by deposit and resource category as set forth by JORC resource reporting standards.  By deposit, a brief summary follows:

·     Gorny:  Previously, no resource had been reported to be present at Gorny.  This deposit was discovered after the 2007 study was completed by SRK.  All resources contained within this deposit are classified as Inferred and there is potential to expand the resource as the limits of mineralisation have not yet been defined to the east, west or down dip. 

·     Maly Kurumkon / Flangovy:  In-fill and step out drilling immediately to the east of Maly Kurumkon has been completed since 2007.  The in-fill drill efforts at Maly Kurumkon have converted a portion of the previously Inferred resources to the higher confidence resource category of Indicated.  The Indicated resource now stands at 21.8 million tonnes averaging 0.58% nickel and 0.16% copper.  This represents an increase of more than 45% to the Maly Kurumkon Indicated resource category from 2007. 

Step out drilling immediately adjacent and east of Maly Kurumkon in the Flangovy area has confirmed that the Maly Kurumkon ore body extends for at least another kilometre eastward bringing the total deposit length to at least two kilometres.  The step out drilling has resulted in a near doubling of the total resource tonnage and has added 157,700 tonnes of nickel bringing the total contained nickel at Maly Kurumkon / Flangovy to 294,200 tonnes making it the largest deposit drilled at Kun-Manie.  Contained copper has also been more than doubled to 85,100 tonnes.  The limits of the mineralisation have not been defined to the east, west or down dip.

·     Vodorazdelny:  In-fill drilling and extensive trenching has resulted in the definition of  Measured resources  for a portion of this deposit which was previously all classified as Indicated.  The total resource now stands at 5.6 million tonnes having an average grade of 0.64% nickel and 0.17% copper.  The deposit has been drilled on a sufficient density resulting in all resources being classified as Measured and Indicated.  The potential for expansion of the resource in this area is limited.

·     Ikenskoe / Sobolevsky:  In-fill drilling and step out drilling to the south have resulted in a substantial conversion of Indicated Resources to the higher confidence class of Measured Resource.  This in-fill drilling has now defined the Measured Resource to be 14.9 million tonnes where it was previously 3.7 million tonnes as defined in 2007.  This is an increase of approximately 300%. 

Step out drilling to the south has identified a higher grade area of Inferred resources.  Globally, the Ikenskoe deposit (plus the Sobolevsky extension to the south) now contains 177,700 tonnes of nickel and 43,800 tonnes of copper.  There has been a net increase 15,000 tonnes of nickel over that reported in 2007.  The potential for expansion of this resource exists as mineralisation remains open at depth and to the east toward Kubuk.

The modeling process also estimated metallurgical parameters including sulphur and magnesium oxide which impact smelter fees, a large cost centre if the Company is to contract smelt its anticipated concentrate.  The creation of this geometallurgical model is a significant enhancement over previously reported JORC resource estimates as it allows the Company to conduct detailed assessment of various smelter schedules and hydrometallurgical processes.

The Company now intends to undertake further technical work to update its previous technical studies and facilitate producing a reserve statement in due course. This will incorporate updated capital and operating costs, the higher metallurgical recoveries derived in 2012 by SGS Minerals, and lower net profits tax.  The study will also assess alternative power generation options, road design considerations, and the potential of generating near final marketable product on site and the determination of specific metallurgical test work required to assess the final configuration of the operation.

SRK Mineral Resource Inventory - 29 July 2013

Kun-Manie Nickel Copper Project

Orebody	Tonnage	Ni	Ni	Cu	Cu	Pt	Pt	Pd	Pd
Resource Category	Mt	%	t	%	t	g/t	kg	g/t	kg
Gorny
Measured	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
Indicated	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
Subtotal	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
Inferred	7.6	0.31	23,900	0.09	7,000	0.2	1,600	0.2	1,900
Total	7.6	0.31	23,900	0.09	7,000	0.2	1,600	0.2	1,900
Ikenskoe
Measured	14.9	0.52	77,100	0.13	19,700	0.2	2,700	0.2	3,000
Indicated	7.7	0.39	29,800	0.10	7,800	0.1	1,100	0.2	1,300
Subtotal	22.6	0.47	106,900	0.12	27,500	0.2	3,800	0.2	4,300
Inferred	11.5	0.62	70,800	0.14	16,300	0.2	2,300	0.2	2,500
Total	34.1	0.52	177,700	0.13	43,800	0.2	6,100	0.2	6,800
Vodorazdelny
Measured	0.8	0.57	4,700	0.17	1,400	0.3	200	0.3	200
Indicated	4.8	0.66	31,200	0.17	8,200	0.1	600	0.1	600
Subtotal	5.6	0.64	35,900	0.17	9,600	0.1	800	0.1	800
Inferred	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
Total	5.6	0.64	35,900	0.17	9,600	0.1	800	0.1	800
Maly Kurumkon
Measured	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
Indicated	21.8	0.58	126,100	0.16	34,900	0.1	2,400	0.1	3,000
Subtotal	21.8	0.58	126,100	0.16	34,900	0.1	2,400	0.1	3,000
Inferred	31.1	0.54	168,100	0.16	50,200	0.1	3,000	0.1	3,100
Total	52.9	0.56	294,200	0.16	85,100	0.1	5,400	0.1	6,100
Total Measured	15.8	0.52	81,800	0.13	21,100	0.2	2,900	0.2	3,200
Total Indicated	34.3	0.55	187,100	0.15	50,900	0.1	4,100	0.1	4,900
Total Inferred	50.1	0.52	262,800	0.15	73,500	0.1	6,900	0.1	7,500
Grand Total	100.2	0.53	531,700	0.15	145,500	0.1	13,900	0.2	15,600

Glossary

DEFINITIONS OF EXPLORATION RESULTS, RESOURCES & RESERVES

EXTRACTED FROM THE JORC CODE: (December 2004) (www.jorc.org)

A 'Mineral Resource' is a concentration or occurrence of material of intrinsic economic interest in or on the Earth's crust in such form, quality and quantity that there are reasonable prospects for eventual economic extraction. The location, quantity, grade, geological characteristics and continuity of a Mineral Resource are known, estimated or interpreted from specific geological evidence and knowledge. Mineral Resources are sub-divided, in order of increasing geological confidence, into Inferred, Indicated and Measured categories.

An 'Inferred Mineral Resource' is that part of a Mineral Resource for which tonnage, grade and mineral content can be estimated with a low level of confidence. It is inferred from geological evidence and assumed but not verified geological and/or grade continuity. It is based on information gathered through appropriate techniques from locations such as outcrops, trenches, pits, workings and drill holes which may be limited or of uncertain quality and reliability.

An 'Indicated Mineral Resource' is that part of a Mineral Resource for which tonnage, densities, shape, physical characteristics, grade and mineral content can be estimated with a reasonable level of confidence. It is based on exploration, sampling and testing information gathered through appropriate techniques from locations such as outcrops, trenches, pits, workings and drill holes. The locations are too widely or inappropriately spaced to confirm geological and/or grade continuity but are spaced closely enough for continuity to be assumed.

A 'Measured Mineral Resource' is that part of a Mineral Resource for which tonnage, densities, shape, physical characteristics, grade and mineral content can be estimated with a high level of confidence. It is based on detailed and reliable exploration, sampling and testing information gathered through appropriate techniques from locations such as outcrops, trenches, pits, workings and drill holes. The locations are spaced closely enough to confirm geological and/or grade continuity.

An 'Ore Reserve' is the economically mineable part of a Measured and/or Indicated Mineral Resource. It includes diluting materials and allowances for losses which may occur when the material is mined. Appropriate assessments and studies have been carried out, and include consideration of and modification by realistically assumed mining, metallurgical, economic, marketing, legal, environmental, social and governmental factors. These assessments demonstrate at the time of reporting that extraction could reasonably be justified. Ore Reserves are sub-divided in order of increasing confidence into Probable Ore Reserves and Proved Ore Reserves.

 

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